I got to thinking about these portals and then something crossed my
mind. These portals are invisible so that unless an elf knows about its
whereabouts, they will actively have to search for it. Sometimes a story
just calls for a little ignorance or forgetfulness to make things a bit more
challenging for a character. But anyone or anything can use a portal, so how do I
prevent say an African elephant from stumbling into Siberia? (hypothetically
speaking of course as this isn't Earth we're talking about).
So I've
decided that a portal can be seen or sensed or even smelled in a variety of
ways, just not by senses as limited as ours, or our elves in this case*.
Like
ultraviolet light. We can't see it, but bugs can (among others) so it makes
sense to me to that the kidnappers, which are based on bugs, can see the portals
that way. And panels 2 and 4, I've decided, is what the portals look
like in UV.
*) In fact, I think the portals are visible one way or another
to just about any critter, except the ones who the portals are made for. I quite
like the evilness or that idea ;)